Fred Gray is a civil rights attorney and activist who practices law in Alabama http://www.fredgray.net/. He served as the President of the National Bar Association

National Bar Association

The National Bar Association was established in 1925 as the "Negro Bar Association" after Gertrude Rush, George H. Woodson, S. Joe Brown, James B. Morris, and Charles P. Howard, Sr. were denied membership in the American Bar Association. It represents the interests of African-American attorneys in...

 in 1985 and the first African-American President of the Alabama State Bar

Alabama State Bar

The Alabama State Bar is the integrated bar association of the U.S. state of Alabama.The Alabama State Bar was established in 1923 and is part of the 1975 Alabama Code, §§ 34-3-1 to 34-3-89....

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Gray was a lawyer in Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 during the civil rights movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

. He came to prominence working with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

, E.D. Nixon, Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....

 and the Montgomery Improvement Association

Montgomery Improvement Association

The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr...

 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...

 in 1955 (Browder v. Gayle

Browder v. Gayle

Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 , was a case heard before the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Montgomery bus segregation laws...

). Other notable cases include: Gomillion v. Lightfoot

Gomillion v. Lightfoot

Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 , was a United States Supreme Court decision that found an electoral district created to disenfranchise blacks violated the Fifteenth Amendment.- Decision :...

(redistricting of Tuskegee, ultimately affording political power to blacks in that city), Williams v. Wallace (protected Selma to Montgomery

Selma to Montgomery marches

The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...

 marchers), and Lee v. Macon (desegregation of all state public schools). He also represented plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor, rural black men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S...

 (Pollard v. U.S.).

Failed federal judicial nomination

On January 10, 1980, President Carter nominated Gray to be a judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Coffee, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Elmore, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes,...

, to fill a vacancy created by Judge Frank Minis Johnson

Frank Minis Johnson

Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. was a United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South...

's elevation to what then was the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...

. Carter later withdrew Gray's nomination on September 17, 1980, in conjunction with the president instead nominating Myron Herbert Thompson

Myron Herbert Thompson

Myron Herbert Thompson is a United States federal judge.Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Thompson received a B.A. from Yale University in 1969 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1972. He was an Assistant Attorney General of Alabama from 1972 to 1974, and was then in private practice in Montgomery,...

 to that seat.

Personal

Gray is a member of Omega Psi Phi

Omega Psi Phi

Omega Psi Phi is a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. Omega Psi Phi was founded on November 17, 1911, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. The founders were three Howard University juniors, Edgar Amos...

 and Sigma Pi Phi

Sigma Pi Phi

Sigma Pi Phi is the first African-American Greek-lettered organization. Sigma Pi Phi was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 15, 1904. The fraternity quickly established chapters in Chicago, IL and then Baltimore, MD....

. Gray's religious affiliation is the Church of Christ

Church of Christ

Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seek to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ. Historically,...

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